Canadiens in 2-0 hole heading to New York

New York Rangers right wing Martin St. Louis (26) celebrates his goal against Montreal Canadiens with teammates during the second period in game two of the Eastern Conference Finals of the 2014 Stanley Cup Playoffs at Bell Centre. (Jean-Yves Ahern-USA TODAY Sports)

MIKE ZEISBERGER, QMI Agency

From the organization that brought you the Cinderella stories of Ken Dryden and Steve Penney, the stage was set for the Legend of Dustin Tokarski to sprout.

Unfortunately for the Montreal Canadiens and their legions of loyal fans, Henrik Lundqvist didn’t read the script.

It wasn’t that the Habs rookie played poorly in Game 2 of this Eastern Conference final Monday, won 3-1 by the Rangers. In fact, he accounted for himself quite well in this, his first career NHL playoff start.

But even the likes of Dryden, George Vezina, Gump Worsley and Patrick Roy in their primes might not have been enough to outshine King Henrik on this night after the Ranger goalie turned aside 40 Canadiens shots to give the visitors a commanding 2-0 lead in this best-of-seven series.

“The only reason we lost this game was Henrik Lundqvist,” Habs coach Michel Therrien said. “He was phenomenal. Phenomenal.”

He was all that, And then some.

With star goalie Carey Price having been ruled out for the remainder of the series with a suspected right knee ailment, Therrien opted to take a calculated rish by starting unproven Tokarski for Game 2 on Monday night at the Bell Centre, passing over regular backup Peter Budaj in the process.

in Tokarski, the Saskatcehwan kid who had a Calder Cup (2012), a Memorial Cup (2008) and a World Junior title (2009) on his resume, maybe, just maybe this 24-year-old goaltender had the type of championship pedigree needed to spark the Habs.

Of course, In the esteemed rich history of the Canadiens, there was precedent here, namely Dryden and Penney.

In 1971, Dryden, having only played six career regular-season games, backstopped the Canadiens to the Stanley Cup. In the end, he was named the winner of the Conn Smythe Trophy as the most valuable player in the post-season.

Thirteen years later, Penney, a callup from the Habs’ farm team in Nova Scotia who had lost consecutive regular-season games for Montreal, suddenly morphed into a playoff hero. Penney led the Canadiens to series upsets of the hated Boston Bruins and Quebec Nordiques before the magic ran out against the eventual Stanley Cup champion New York Islanders in the third round.

Now, with Price having been knocked out by a collision with Rangers forward Chris Kreider on Saturday, could Tokarski follow suit by engraving his name into the Habs illustrious folklore?

The sidelined Price obviously thought so, telling Tokarski prior to the game to go out there and be “a warrior.”

“It was a lot of fun,” Tokarski said. “A lot of adrenalin. It was a great opportunity. I had fun out there.

“I thought I played well but we came up a bit short.”

Given Therrien’s praise of his rookie goaltender after the contest, expect Tokarski to get the call again in Game 3 on Thursday in New York.

And make no mistake. Montreal’s ailments cut much deeper than just goaltending.

Scoring three goals in 120 minutes on home ice, for one, is not the recipe to get you into the Stanley Cup final.

After learning that Price would be out of action indefinitely, Kreider told the world on Monday that he was not a dirty player. That view was not shared by the Bell Centre throng, who unleashed a round of deafening boos when it was announced 10 minutes prior to the opening faceoff that Kreider was in the Rangers starting lineup.

With questions swirling around the Bell Centre concerning possible retaliation by the Habs for Kreider’s actions, the Canadiens came out charging the net hard, a blueprint that saw Brendan Gallagher upend Lundqvist just 25 seconds into the game. There was nothing dirty on the part of the Habs forward, though, as he had been shoved into the Rangers goalie by New York forward Rick Nash.

The Habs continued to press, their efforts finally paying off at 6:14 of the first when Max Pacioretty gave them a 1-0 lead. But that momentum quickly evaporated when Ryan McDonagh tied the score 17 seconds later when his shot took a weird deflection past Tokarski.

By the midway point of the second, goals by Nash and Martin St. Louis put the Rangers up 3-1. After that, cue the Lundqvist heroics.

“It’s a lot of pressure out there but it’s a lot of fun,” said Lundqvist, the game’s first star.

Maybe for him. Notso much for the Habs.

KREIDER SHUTS ’EM UP

How do you shut up an entire city from jeering you?

By setting up the eventual winning goal like Chris Kreider did on Monday night.

With Habs fans livid at his Game 1 collision with Carey Price that left the Montreal goalie out for the series, Kreider quieted the raucous Bell Centre by assisting on Rick Nash’s game-winner late in the first period of New York’s 3-1 victory of the Eastern Conference final.

“Some of the guys pointed out to me how silent the building got when that happened,” Kreider said afterward.